Tag Archives: Fringe

With Edinburgh International Festival’s much-anticipated summer programme being launched on Wednesday and the first Fringe tickets already on sale, March is the time when the buzz of Edinburgh’s summer festivals really kicks off.

But there’s a new festival in town which is getting the tongues of arts enthusiasts wagging: the Festival of Erotic Arts (FEA).

Running for three days in June, FEA is the first of its kind in Scotland and follows a growing number of cities who have begun hosting such festivals in recent years; Seattle’s Festival of Erotic Art is now in its tenth year, and attracts over 10,000 visitors, while similar events take place annually in Paris, Berlin and New York among others.

As with any new and controversial event, FEA’s programme announcement sparked furore over the weekend, with both the city council and the Church of Scotland voicing concerns over the potential risks posed to vulnerable women and the impact advertising could have on children.

But rather than reinforcing and perpetuating clichés, the festival’s organisers, Itsy Live Events, promise to give a platform to erotic art in all its forms, as well as creating a place for art and performances not otherwise seen in mainstream venues.

Events are typical of any other arts festival; exhibitions and talks include Erotic: Surreal and Abstract and A Spoken History of the Erotic Arts. The innocently named Arts & Crafts Fair is being plugged as “a one-of-a-kind sexy fair” with everything from books to accessories to clothes being sold by craftmakers and artists alike.

For those keen to dip their toe into the erotic water, there’s a beginner’s workshop in Japanese style bondage, which involves decorative ties with ropes. Run by a bondage professional, the ticket price includes a goody bag with lesson sheets, 15 metres of rope, and an all-important pair of safety scissors.

Despite being a short, weekend festival, many of the names involved in the FEA are the crème de la crème of the UK’s fetish scene. London-based Torture Garden’s fetish, burlesque and body art club nights for “alternative arty weirdos” are the biggest in the world, with previous visitors including Marilyn Manson, Dita Von Teese and Jean Paul Gaultier. A debate on the nature of human sexuality will be hosted by award nominated cabaret act, ArtWank, while internationally bestselling author and blogger extraordinaire, Zoe Margolis, will be giving a Q&A on the art of sex blogging.

With Margolis a regular contributor to The Guardian and The Observer, the FEA is going out of its way to make sure this festival is taken seriously. Describing it as “a sleaze-free celebration of a thriving art form”, there’s an undeniable absence of smut in the way it’s being marketed – and if nothing else, it’s good advertising for Itsy Live Events’ other specialist service, “reputation management”.

An independent report into the box office system failure at last year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe has criticised the Fringe Society’s “lack of strategic direction and transparency”.

The report, published today by consultants Scott-Moncrieff, says the replacement of the Fringe’s box office system shortly before the 2008 festival was poorly handled from start to finish.

The new software malfunctioned as tickets went on sale last June, leaving the Society unable to print tickets for show previews until just one week before performances began.

Permanent venues were able to market their own shows and sell tickets independently. A spokesman for the Traverse Theatre said their sales went up. “We had a really strong programme and seven out of ten of our shows were sold out every day”.

But ticket sales over the festival as a whole were down 10% on 2007 figures, in part as a result of the box office fiasco that left many small visiting companies without a means to print tickets.

Fringe director Jon Morgan called 2008 a “fantastic year”, but his resignation followed shortly after sales figures were released. As a result it was decided to modify the Fringe’s management structure and recruit a chief executive.

The Fringe Board of directors today released a statement welcoming the report. It says the recommendations are already being implemented as part of a system of changes to “ensure that the incoming chief executive inherits an organisation that can reinforce the Fringe’s position as the biggest and best arts festival in the world with a box office system to match”.